


Chinatown

by BlakRabbit



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: #BFSecretSanta2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlakRabbit/pseuds/BlakRabbit
Summary: One of the many stories of the rise and fall of New York City's Chinatown during the times of Shorter Wong, Lao Yen-Thai, and Sing Soo-Ling
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Shorter Wong, Sing Soo-Ling & Shorter Wong
Kudos: 12





	1. The way things were before

**Author's Note:**

> This is my gift for @Mosspandas from Twitter.
> 
> Prompt: "Anything festive- Do as your heart desires"
> 
> Ship: Shorter/Sing

For the first time in a long time Nadia was all smiles; today was first time she’s celebrating the holidays with her brother after 2 long years thanks to the Lee’s who had pulled some strings to shorten his sentence. The house was warm and light as friends and family from different parts of New York and even Los Angeles came to Nadia’s for Christmas. The younger kids running around, the elders chatting about nostalgic days of the past, and getting to enjoy Shorter’s boisterous laugh and his ear-to-ear smile once again gave Nadia the hope she had for her family before the unfortunate event that fell upon Chang Dai. It felt like everything was back to normal; to the way thing were.

“Sing, open that present over there. That’s from me and Shorter”, Nadia said lightheartedly.

“Ok”, Sing opens the present without hesitation to find a new pair of sneakers, “NO WAY! These are the ones I wanted! Thanks, you guys!” Sing goes to Nadia and gives her a big hug.

When Sing gets to Shorter he gives Sing a noogie, “Merry Christmas, Sing. Go and try ‘em on in my room.”

“Can I?”

“Sure!”

Sing rushes off into Shorter’s room to try on his new sneaks. As he sits on Shorter’s bed and takes off his shoes he couldn’t help but stare intensely at the dresser which had multiple friends and family photos Shorter had kept over the years. After his mind wandered for a little while he shook his head, and continued trying on his new shoes.

He comes out flaunting his shoes for all of the family to see, and wears them for the rest of the night with the happiest smile on his face. He was so happy for Shorter to come back home; he was bored without him. He loved listening to Shorter, Lao, and the gang talk about the most outlandish antics while they were out in the city. He thought maybe one day Shorter would let him join one of those times they went out at night or maybe let him get the chance to help out. He knew he was too young back then, but at the age of 14 he wanted in.

During the party Sing had seen Shorter talk to the usual group which consisted of his half-brother, Lao, Shorter’s friend, Sonny, and some other cousins and friends. Sing knew something interesting was gonna happen later, and didn’t want to miss it. Sing gets closer to overhear some of their conversation:

“It’s so good to have you back, man”, Lao says with a genuine smile, “Chinatown is a shit hole without you.”

“Watch your language. There’s kids around”, Shorter tells Lao in a stern tone, “Wait until we get some private time, alright? We’ll talk more on the roof later.”

After a while the party had died down, people started to leave, and some began to help out Nadia with cleaning the house. When everyone was going home Shorter had told Nadia that he was going out to hang with some of his friends which made her worry. As she and Sing were washing the dishes she gives Shorter a concerned look, “Can I have a word with you for a sec?”

Nadia and Shorter walk off to walk and left Sing to keep washing dishes. Lao seeing Sing alone in the kitchen nudges him and whispers, “Hey, you didn’t tell him anything, did you? About what happened?”

“No, why would I?”

Lao felt relieved and replied, “Good, keep it that way. Shorter would fuckin’ kill me if he knew what went down.”

“If he doesn’t know already...”, Sing mutters under his breath. 

Lao hears his mutters, and yanks on his ear, “You fuckin’ told him, didn’t you?”

“Ow! I said I didn’t, Lao, CUT IT OUT!”

Sing was getting annoyed and his voice was getting louder for other people to hear so Lao dropped the conversation, and walked away to give Sing some space. With a frustrated expression, Sing continues with the dishes and is left alone to his thoughts. 

Nadia pulls Shorter to the side and whispers, “Shorter, you just got out... and you wanna hang with your so-called ‘friends’ that put you in there in the first place?”

“Relax, Nadia, nothin’s gonna happen tonight or any other night. I just wanna shoot the shit with a couple o’ guys. Nothin’ more, nothin’ less. Can I do that?”

Nadia gives a big sigh of disapproval but she trusts her brother, “I bettah not hear anything, you understand me?”

“Nadia, I’ll be a good boy. I promise you.” Shorter sees his sister’s concerned looks, “Cross my heart. Scout’s honor. If I’m lyin’, I’m fryin’ like a turkey on Thanksgiving.”

Nadia couldn’t help but smile at Shorter’s lame attempts to make her smile, but it worked...it always worked. They both share a smile and a hug as Nadia says in Shorter’s ear, “What am I gonna do with you, Kid?” Shorter simply replies, “Thanks for trusting me, Sis.”

Shorter sees Sing in the kitchen drying and putting the dishes away; he pats him on the shoulder for doing a good job helping Nadia, walks towards the door, and Sing watches on as Shorter shuts the door behind him. Nadia comes back in the kitchen to see how Sing was doing, and asked if he was okay since she heard him yelling at Lao some moments ago. Sing said he was fine, and that he was done with the dishes so he was going to play some video games in Shorter’s room. Nadia kisses Sing on the forehead and shoves him off to play games while she gets some much needed rest in her bedroom.


	2. News from the Outside

"Ash! Ash Lynx!” 

Ash hears his name being called by a warden while reading in the yard. He really hated having his time to himself being interrupted especially when he was off in his own world reading a good book. 

“ASH!”

“WHAT? I’m not deaf!” Ash finally gets up and walks over to the warden.

“You gotta phone call from your old man. He wants to talk to ya.”

Ash had a confused, yet fearful expression on his face as he follows the warden to the phone booths. He picks up the phone, takes a deep breath, and says in a submissive tone, “Hello?”

The mysterious, deep voice answers, “Hello, Blondie. When am I gonna get my Christmas card back, huh?”

Ash recognizes who he’s talkin’ to and sighs in relief, “You’ll get it when you’ll get it, Baldy.”

“Fuck you, Wildcat”, they both share a chuckle, and Shorter continues, “Anyways, what’s new, Capo?”

“What’s new? I’m in juvie. Can’t say shit, can’t do shit...”

“Apparently, can’t hear shit either.”

Ash’s curiosity is piqued, “How so?”

Shorter looks around him to make sure he was alone on the main floor of the apartment building while on the pay phone, “Frankie, the guy you fucked up in the library.”

“Yeah?”

“He got whacked a few days ago.”

“Shit, guess Arthur means business.”

“Frankie wasn’t gonna last long out here. You and I both know Arthur plays for keeps. He won’t let up now knowing I’m out here and you’re in there. He’s gonna bring all o’ his boys out the woodwork. So I just called to keep you in the know…Ash?”

Ash has been staring at a group of teens that have been eyeing him for the past few minutes. They looked uninviting and they appear to be waiting for the chance to get their hands on him. 

“Ash? You still there?” Shorter says as he breaks Ash’s concentration.

“Yeah, I’m still here. Listen. Thanks for callin’me, but I gotta go now.”

Shorter can hear the seriousness in Ash’s voice, “They comin’ for you?”

“...Yeah.”

“They’re not gonna know what hit ‘em. Give ‘em hell, Wildcat.”

Ash chuckles in confidence, “Wouldn’t want it any other way. Later, Marblehead.”

As Ash ends the call with Shorter, he tries to stand up to leave the booth but is swaying back and forth as if he was getting vertigo. The warden sees Ash wobbling from the booth, and goes to check on him, “Hey, you ok, kid?”

Ash says with a drunken slur, “I-I don’t feel so good. Help m-” He faints, and falls into the warden’s arms. In a panic the warden quickly asks for assistance, and Ash is sent off to the infirmary with nurses and wardens surrounding him. The teens that were waiting for him walk away from the nearby scene as to not seem suspicious.

The nurses seem to not know what’s wrong with Ash so they resolve the issue as an isolated incident and have him stay in the infirmary for the day to be monitored. They have a talk with one of the wardens who has been asking odd questions about Ash’s status since he “fainted”; Ash looks at the warden to remember his face, and the warden is looking back at him which poses another threat to his safety. As they leave Ash alone in the infirmary bed he is wide awake with his eyes staring at the ceiling wandering where that group came from, who they rep, who that warden works for and so many other questions that are rattling in his head. Shorter’s phone call saved his hide for today, but for now he’s gotta figure out how to stay alive long enough to get back to the outside.


	3. Proving Grounds

About a half an hour has passed with Sing still in Shorter’s bedroom, but not playing video games as he said he would. He checked to see if Nadia was fast asleep to creep past her bedroom and sneak out the front door to find Shorter and the others. Sing looks around in the empty hallway wandering which way Shorter and the rest could’ve taken to get to the roof. He hears faint laughter coming from the south fire exit. He creeps up the few flights of stairs to see a few guys he knew hanging out in the stairway; he didn’t wanna talk to them right now so he gives them hellos and proceeds to open the cracked entrance door to the roof. When he opens the door he sees the main group huddled around Shorter passing a blunt, drinking booze, and playing poker under the slightly chill evening sunset.

Lao sees Sing in the doorway, “Sing! What’re you doing here? This is no place for you.”

“Relax, Lao”, Shorter interjects as he takes a puff of the blunt, “He’s safe with us. Let him through.”

Sing sticks his tongue out at his half-brother, and rushes to Shorter’s side wanting to sit in the poker circle. Shorter lets Sing know not to smoke the blunt or drink booze while he’s up there with them, and Sing nods his head eagerly just wanting to simply sit and listen to the conversations.

“Tell me somethin’, Boss”, one of Shorter’s friends starts talking, “How is Nadia? I mean, is she doing alright? That was some hit Chang Dai took.”

“Kind of, the doctors said that she had minor injuries, and unfortunately she’s experienced some bad days in her head but we’ll get through it. She’s been goin’ to one of her friend’s places when I was in juvie.”

“Who is this friend? Do we know ‘em?”

“I’m not gonna get into her business. As long as she trusts them, whoever they are, I trust ‘em. So far so good though. I just feel bad I wasn’t there that morning it went down.”

“Hey, Xiang was there, and he did what he had to do. Nadia’s the only reason some of us are still even around. Xiang was one of those kids Nadia broke bread with, and he protected her with his life. That hit wasn’t your fault, Boss, so you can get that outta your head.”

Shorter takes a deep breath to calm himself, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We gotta look on the bright side...We still got Nadia, we still got Chang Dai, and we still got each other...unfortunately, Arthur is still a backstabbing prick, but...” 

Everyone laughs at Shorter’s jab at Arthur and Shorter continues, “We’ll hit him back. We’ll hit him back hard just like he hit us. As long as I’m still around that no-good rat is gonna get what’s comin’ to ‘em.” The gang cheers their Boss on being promised of a better, safer future; a future without someone like Arthur at their heels. Sing’s eyes lit up in excitement at Shorter’s words; his convictions even stronger than before to be a part of this loyal family.

Another guy starts to speak, “It sounds like you got an ace in your back pocket, Boss.”

“I met somebody in juvie that hates Arthur just as much as I do. We gotta build our connections with other sets if we are to go up against him.”

All the guys look at each other wondering who Shorter was talking about, and they all say different variants of the question, “Who?”

“A boy called ‘The Wildcat’...Ash Lynx they call him.”

Shorter just sat there with his feet propped up on the box they used as a makeshift table smoking the blunt with a straight face contrasted by everyone’s simultaneous expression of fear and shock. Sing had no clue who they were referring to and had a curious look. 

The mutters echoed throughout the gang; they knew who Ash Lynx was from the rumors. “The Wildcat of the East Village Massacre”, “The D.E.A. (Dead-Eye Assassin) of Manhattan”, “The Kiss of Death”, “Hell’s Angel”, “The Devil himself” are the many names that were uttered in the crowd. One of those names Sing recognized, and it hit him like lightning; the boy who took out 4 guys and supposedly there were rumors of a girl, too, all on his own in the East Village neighborhood. They heard he was uncontrollable, the police couldn’t even handle him so they had to sedate him, and somehow Shorter managed to be friends with him?

The guys all were worried about Shorter’s choice of friends just as much as Nadia. His choice of being around Arthur was the reason he went to juvie, and now he’s already teamed up with another blonde hotshot, but this one is 10 times worse compared to Arthur. However, the guys knew that Shorter had learned from his mistakes in misjudging people so they went with Shorter’s judgment of Ash for now.

After hearing enough Sing lets himself be heard, “Shorter, can I join you guys?”

All eyes were on Sing as he was waiting for an answer from Shorter. The wind in the air had stopped; you could feel the tension of everyone wanting Sing to just drop the whole thing.

Shorter with his straight face still intact replies, “Sing, now you know I can’t let Nadia’s youngest cousin throw his life away just because he thought the life I lead is something to admire. I kill people. There’s nothing glamorous or cool about that.”

“I don’t care about any of that, Shorter. I wanna join because I want to protect people like you and the guys do. I know that hit on Chang Dai was probably not the last, and I want to be there to help Nadia if it happens again.”

Lao interjects, “FUCK NO! Are you kidding me?! Sing!”

Sing looks at Lao with disdain then he looks at everybody around Shorter with the same look as if they have stabbed him in the back. He felt alone, but he didn’t care; he was not going to give up. 

Sing’s voice got low and steady, “Do you know what I did when you were in juvie, Shorter?”

Gasps and slight movements spread throughout the crowd. Lao wanted to walk over to Sing to shut his mouth, but Shorter gave him a look that stopped him in his tracks.

“Lao and the guys may have not told you, but I will to give some glimpse of what we had to go through when you were away...”

Lao tries to interject once more, “SING! SHUT THE FUCK-”

“NO, YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! He has to know...Arthur thought it was a good idea to take us head on while we were regrouping and fixing Chang Dai. One night, the guys were up against the wall trying to fight back, but it took me and the other kids from the acrobat school to help fend them off.”

Sing couldn’t see Shorter’s eyes, but he saw his eyebrow’s furl from above the sunglasses. Shorter knew that the acrobat school Sing goes to had kids from ages 6-17, and it gave him chilling goosebumps knowing that the youngest of Sing’s classmates was only 10 years old. He never wanted those kids to experience horrendous events such as that. To know they were in a shootout with Arthur and his goons made him sick, and the fact that his guys kept it a secret from him made him sicker.

Sing continues his thoughts, “I know you’d rather not hear that, but we’re still here...and it proves that I’m good for it...Shorter, please let me help out.”

“I said No, Sing!”

“What the fuck, Shorter? That hit on Chang Dai almost killed my cousin!”

“She’s my family, too, Sing. She’s my sister!”

“Is she really though? You’re not blood; you were taken in”, Shorter and the guys around him couldn’t believe what they were hearing as Sing never let up in his frustration, “I’m just as worthy as anybody here to protect my family! Stop pretending that I’m too young to understand and listen to me!”

Lao’s face turned pale white not knowing what to do; he was paralyzed. As much as he wanted to protect Sing he couldn’t do a thing for him at this point. 

Shorter calmly gets up from the chair, and puts some space between him and Sing. He says to some of the guys, “Move the table and chairs outta the way.” They do what they were told while the others start to gather around in a circle to make a cage. The rooftop door was closed shut to keep the noise level down in the building. Shorter and Sing stand face to face with each other.

Shorter says to Sing with his hands in his pockets, “So you want to join, huh? Think you got what it takes to take on a boss?”

Sing replies with hands in his pockets as well, “I can take on Arthur, sure.”

“Heh... I’m pretty sure you can take on that asshole...I meant can you take me on? One-on-one. If you win, you can join me and the guys. If you lose, we never speak of this again.”

Sing starts to hesitate in his movements, but his conviction remains the same, “I don’t wanna fight you, Shorter, but if this proves I’m worthy of protecting my family then, yeah, I’ll go toe-to-toe with you.”

“Then make a move...”

Sing has heard of these kinds of fights, and was ready at all times in case it happened to him. He pulls out Shorter’s dragon fang from his pocket. Lao was surprised he had stolen it, but Shorter wasn’t fazed by it.

“I figured someone was going through my dresser when my Hustler mags kept movin’ around”, Shorter said with a smile as he pulled out his butterfly knife. Shorter gives a gesture with this hands for Sing to make the first move.

Sing starts by throwing the dragon fang at Shorter, but the wire wraps around Shorter’s arm and the knife dangles uselessly as Sing gets pulled towards Shorter and is punched in the gut hard. Sing kneels trying to catch his breath, but is shoved away by Shorter’s foot.

“You giving up? So soon? All you came to do was get your ass whooped?” 

Shorter stands there and waits for an answer from Sing. While Sing was trying to breathe he could hear Lao and a few guys say “Get up, Sing”. Soon the chanting grew to almost everyone in the circle. Sing starts to slowly get up and the crowd cheered him on. Sing finally had open support on his side; they were finally listening and believing in him. Sing stares at Shorter figuring out what to do next.

He tries to get up close and personal with Shorter using his Kung-Fu he learned to try to disarm him, but it’s not looking good for Sing. Shorter always had an answer to Sing’s movements, however Sing was starting to learn how to use the dragon fang in close-range combat as he managed to entwine one of Shorter’s legs with the wire, trip him to ground, and aim the dragon fang knife to Shorter’s throat. 

Sing felt proud to see that he took down Shorter; it would’ve been a victory hadn’t it been for Shorter’s knife that was aimed at his torso. Both were shocked to realize the other had the killing blow at the ready. They could feel the blade’s sharp edges waiting for the other to give in, but that moment never happened.

“Your brother never wanted this life for you...Nadia never wanted this life for you...I never wanted this life for you”, Shorter struggles to say as he keeps himself from crying.

“You all don’t get to make that decision for me. I want to protect you guys, I want to protect my friends, I want to make my mark on Chinatown just like you and my brother...and Nadia. That’s all I want, Shorter. Please...”

The guys in the circle had looked on with fearful eyes thinking that death was the only way this fight will end; it always ended that way. Lao, in fear of his brother’s life, stared with tears in his eyes. Shorter looks into Sing’s eyes and saw a fire he’d never seen before in him; he was really serious about being a part of his group. He gives a snort of disapproval, but Shorter drops his knife to signal a loss. The guys and Lao couldn’t believe it...Sing won. They split apart, and the guys gather around Sing to congratulate him on the win. Shorter breaks up the celebration, and walks up to Sing.

Sing looks down to the ground and says with shame, “Look...What I said before about you not being family. It shouldn’t matter if you’re related or not, you’re Nadia’s brother, and my cousin. I’m truly sorry, Shorter.”

“Boss.”

“Huh?”

“It’s ‘Boss’ when we’re not around family, and you’re gonna need this”, Shorter takes his gun from his back pocket and gives it to Sing, “You’re one of us now. Don’t make me regret this, Sing.”

Sing swells with pride, “I won’t let you down, Boss!” He puts the inherited gun in his back pocket.

Shorter smiles knowing his cousin is gonna be a handful for anyone that threatens Chinatown. With the sun already gone they take to the streets for a holiday joy ride on their bikes making it a Christmas they’d remember for a long time.


	4. Epilogue

On the day after Christmas, Sing was back to his normal days of teaching his classmates a routine for the upcoming Chinese New year performance at the acrobatics school. He hears a “Ho! Ho! Ho!” from the entrance, and sees Shorter in a Santa outfit holding a big bag of toys for the kids and teens. They all huddled around to open the toys and other gifts putting the brightest smiles on everyone’s faces. All of the kids and teens kept saying their thank yous to “Shorter”, but “Santa” kept correcting them which made the adult acrobats laugh. They decided to close the school for the rest of the day to have an after holidays party and spend time together as a community.


End file.
